Slow cooker devotees can breathe a sigh of relief: Jack Pearson wasn’t actually killed by the appliance on This Is Us after all—well, not entirely. This week’s episode of the hit NBC show finally revealed that the slow cooker may have started the fire in Jack's home, but it was a heart attack that ended his life. His wife, Rebecca, is told that it was smoke inhalation from the fire that caused him to go into cardiac arrest.

Specifically, he suffered what’s commonly referred to as a “widowmaker heart attack”—the term Jack’s wife Rebecca used when giving his best friend, Miguel, the sad news.

As soon as the end credits rolled, viewers began furiously Googling the phrase (online searches spiked in the hours after the episode aired), which may have left people wondering about their own risks for a widowmaker.

“A 'widowmaker heart attack' is a common term used to describe a proximal left anterior descending (LAD) lesion,” PIH Health cardiologist Gerald E. Beckham, M.D., tells SELF. “The LAD artery, on the left side of the heart, supplies the front and main wall of the heart with blood. A widowmaker heart attack is caused when the LAD is totally blocked or has life-threatening blockage at the beginning of the vessel.

Because the LAD is such a major part of the heart, damage or a blockage that affects it can have widespread, devastating effects. If it's not functional, "then the remaining arteries will also shut down as the heart escalates into a heart attack," Dr. Beckham says. Thanks to that "domino effect," as Dr. Beckham puts it, "the damage that can be sustained is often quick and silent," he says. "An artery can go from 30 percent blocked to 100 percent blocked within a matter of seconds, causing catastrophic and often fatal outcomes.”

Although inhaling smoke definitely puts extra stress on your heart, it's not obvious how it might cause this specific type of heart issue.

According to the New York State Department of Health, inhaling fire smoke decreases the amount of oxygen in your body and irritates your lungs, causing shortness of breath and aggravating any lung or heart conditions you might have. So, if you already have some type of blockage in your heart or other cardiac issues, inhaling smoke can exacerbate an issue.

But if, like Jack, you have no known history of cardiovascular problems, experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event also has the potential to cause a widowmaker heart attack, Jahandar R. Saleh, M.D., director of cardiology and chairman of the department of internal medicine at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, tells SELF.

“Severe stress has been established as a cause of heart attacks in patients who have or even do not have coronary artery disease,” Dr. Saleh explains. In patients who do have coronary artery disease, it can precipitate a classic heart attack. But in patients who don't have coronary artery disease, it can cause a "significant and direct effect on the heart" by causing severe weakness in the heart (aka "broken heart syndrome"), Dr. Saleh says.

This means a balanced diet, regular exercise, keeping blood pressure at a healthy level, staying on top of other chronic illnesses (e.g. diabetes), managing stress, and avoiding smoking. It’s also important to understand the early symptoms of a heart attack. According to Mayo Clinic, these may include pain, pressure or a strange feeling in the chest as well as sweating, shortness of breath, nausea, an irregular heartbeat, lightheadedness or weakness, and pain, pressure or a strange feeling in the back, neck, jaw, or upper belly or in one or both shoulders or arms.

And don’t hesitate to pay your doctor a visit even if none of your symptoms seem obviously like a heart attack. Chest pain is the most common symptom, but women and people with diabetes may not notice it as much as other symptoms, Dr. Beckham says. So, if something feels off, check in with your doctor.